The Pied Piper: A Handbook (Greenwood Folklore Handbooks) by Wolfgang Mieder

The Pied Piper: A Handbook (Greenwood Folklore Handbooks) Reviews

• 
  Kelly W.

  I bought this book at a book sale where an academic journal was selling volumes it couldn’t review (because they were outside the journal’s subject matter). I’m no folklorist, but the field has always intrigued me, especially since some of the stories reach back to the middle ages. I decided to read this book because the enigmatic figure of the Pied Piper is somewhat alluring, and I knew nothing of its background or historical context.
  
  My favorite thing about this book is its inclusion of a number of primary texts. Mieder doesn’t just allude to early versions of the legend, but actually prints them in this volume (in English) so readers can see different variants and change throughout time. I also appreciated how well-organized this book was so that readers could easily find the information needed, as well as skip around to points that are most interesting to them (it is, after all, marketed as a handbook).
  
  My criticisms are probably personal preferences more than anything. I would have liked to see German and Latin texts offered in the original language as well as translation (though I recognize that would have taken up a lot of space). I also found some of the prose repetitive and the use of exclamation marks off-putting, but the information itself is well-collected and put together. Because of the abundance of translations, you don’t need to know German to read this book. In fact, you don’t really need to be a folklorist or academic at all - it’s written to be accessible for students, so anyone with an interest in the Pied Piper will probably find this book useful.
• 
  Lindsey

  This book is written in a dry, academic style but if you're interested in specific fairy tales and folklore, like I am, these Greenwood Folklore Handbooks are the way to go. When it comes to information about the Pied Piper legend (short of traveling through time to find out what actually took the youth away from Hamelin), this book is about as thorough as it gets!
• 
  Copland Wade

  To my knowledge there are only two English books on this topic. The other is entitled, In Search of the Pied Piper, by Radu Florescu. Dr. Mieder's book is a tremendous reference for this topic. It is well written and gives a comprehensive analysis of this wonderful folktale. Everything you would want to know about the Pied Piper of Hamelin is included in this book. There is bad news. The book costs between $40.00 - $55.00! This is unfortunate and insures its limited circulation. It would be nice if it was introduced in paperback. I'm sure its' steep price has to do with it being a part of the Greenwood Folklore Handbook series. I purchased this book, but only because of research I am doing concerning the Pied Piper for a musical. I first read it through the inter-library loan system.
• 
  Meltha

  First off, I salute Mieder's scholarship. This book is, in a word, exhaustive. If you have ever at any time had any question about "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," it will be addressed, if not answered, in this book. Definitely a must for anyone working on any kind of project involving this folktale. Not entirely sure I agree with him about the Orpheus imagery being irrelevant, but what's a scholarly project that doesn't have a bit of debate to it.